Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Welcome To The Block

I went to Block Island when I was--nine? And although I've had a scary association with it--eardrums bursting and dungeons, thanks to a book my mom was writing at the time, I remember it being pretty cool. After moving to Rhode Island last month, one of the first things we did was take the ferry over there.When we got to the dock, it was so foggy I started worrying our high speed ferry would get into a mid-water collision. But we took off right into it. Really choppy on the way over, but fun. Takes about a half hour.

As you get closer to the island, you go alongside it, so you see the really cool and deadly cliffs. We broke out of the fog just in time to get a view.

Tips of islands (capes, land masses, etc.) intrigue me. So we rented bikes and pedaled as far north as you can go, then walked the beach to the northernmost point. You can see the tip in the distance above.

People (aliens?) make these little rock towers on the beach. Here, someone goes the Stonehenge route.

The tip! Waves were breaking from each side, as you can see above, slowly making the tip shorter. You're not supposed to swim around here, because of the undertow. But we definitely went in up to our knees. This was a few weeks ago--it was a really warm day.

Now onto one of the beaches where you are supposed to swim. Great waves, and way out by the cliffs, one of those para-saila-wind-kite-boarders.

Wave breaking.

These two seemed to only be in this boat so that they could go over waves and flip over repeatedly. Here, the front dude almost falls out.

Now we're up at the top of Mohegan Bluff with its famous (to me) staircase. It's cool, you take the stairs all the way down, 200 feet, to the beach.

Down on the beach.

And another beach shot.

Bonus shot: Me (and my sister) on the ferry arriving at Block Island, at some point in the mid-80s.